Would Be Lovers
by the writer formerlyknown as lm
Summary: A scene between teenaged Dumbledore and Grindewald in Albus's bedroom.


I made a canon mistake (which is not uncharacteristic for me) and **Morkhan** pointed it out, while **Skyla Ladona** gave me the exact information. Obviously I wrote this in a rush, and not out of fondness for the pairing. It is humorous to me how me and my friend Lauren joked about how this was the 'gayest' relationship Jo had ever depicted before her infamous revelation.

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**Would-Be Lovers (Find Their Rejectors Mysterious)**

There was a knock on my door, and I lifted my gaze from the book on my lap.

"Yes?" I asked. I didn't feel like speaking to my brother; we'd been having some issues as of late, and being alone seemed ideal.

"It's me, Albus. Can I come in?"

My heart leapt as I did, jumping off of my bed and opening the door, wrapping Gellert in my embrace.

"It's good to see you, too, Albus," he said, strained, and sounding nowhere near as enthusiastic as I was.

"Have you read this book, Gellert?" I said, bouncing on the heels of my feet. It might've been only a week since I'd seen him, but that was much too long in my mind. "Here," I said, thrusting it out towards him.

He took it, inspecting it warily, brow furrowed. He seemed skeptical. He seemed to have aged ten years in seven days.

"Albus," he said. "You don't think I'm going to take ideas from this man?" He looked at me, surprised and a bit disgusted.

I frowned.

"He has some good---"

He interrupted me and threw my book across my room. I slumped back onto my bed.

"My plans, _our_ plans," he added with a brief smile, and I returned it, feeling grateful that he was trying to include me, "will not be anyone else's but our own, Albus. We're brilliant, you and I."

"Where did you go, Gellert?" I asked as he took a seat next to me on my bed. I thought of putting my hand on his knee but thought better of it.

"Looking for allies," he said, leaning back on his elbows, looking suave. "Looking for inspiration. Anything, really."

"You should've let me go with you. You should've at least told me you were leaving," I said, unable to hide the disappointment in my voice.

"I left you a note," Gellert said, as if that was enough and I was being queer for expecting anything more.

Gellert went back over to the book I'd been reading and picked the quill off of my desk. He drew something in it briefly, not asking or caring if the book was of my possession, and then held it out for me to see.

It was the symbol for the Deathly Hollows.

"So we're still set on that?" I said, and Gellert nodded, re-joining me on my bed.

"Of course."

I was about to ask Gellert if he had found out anything about the Hollows while he'd been gone. I was tempted to ask him just where he'd run off to, but seeing as how Bathilda had been as clueless as I to his location, and since he wasn't giving it up, I figured he didn't see the disclosure as necessary.

"Albus?"

I turned away from Gellert, embarrassed at realizing I'd been staring, and saw Aberforth standing at my door, frowning.

"I'm tired of watching Ariana," he said, frowning at Gellert.

"I have company, Aberforth. I'm sorry," I said, standing up and closing the door to my room.

"_Albus_!" he yelled before stomping off, cutting off my snide reply.

I turned around to see that Gellert was back at my desk, writing on some of my parchment.

"What are you writing now?"

"A note," he said, finishing it with a flourish before holding it out to me. I took it and read.

"Albus, I will be gone again. I don't know how long, but I thought I should let you know.

This is very similar to the last note you left me."

"Yes, but this one was delivered in person. Better?"

"It _is_ better; I do acknowledge that, Gellert." I smiled, feeling happy that he was willing to display any sort of anything for my feelings, but I was a bit depressed that he was leaving again. "But I suppose you can't tell me where you're going."

"I could, but it's not really necessary," he said, verbalizing my previous assumption. "I will come back, Albus, and then we'll follow through with our plans."

His use of possessive adjectives elated me to some degree, so I nodded, and before I could stop myself, I was hugging him again.

"You're too emotional, Albus," he said.

"I don't deny it," I said upon removing myself, sorting out the wrinkles on my cloak. "I need to work on it."

"Work on it," he said, smiling, "just not too much. As long as you can keep those emotions in check they're of no consequence to me."

I blushed; that was the closest he had ever been to complimenting me.

"I'll miss you," I said before I could stop myself. Gellert acted like he didn't hear me.

"I should go," he said, pulling out his wand.

"Why are you going out that way?" I asked, watching him undo the security charms on my window.

"My aunt's looking for me. I've got to get back to her house, by any measure. Goodbye, Albus."

"Goodbye, Gellert."

And then he was gone, and I picked up my book. I had stolen it from the Hogwarts library. I chuckled to myself, thinking of the extra security that that place was in dire need of.

I found the page Gellert had defaced fairly easily and gazed at his drawing with a look of admiration etched upon my face. He was brilliant, he really was, and he understood. He understood everything I believed and everything I never would.

There was some writing underneath his sketch that I hadn't noticed before, and I smiled to myself as I read his scrawl.

"For the greater good."

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The title's from the book, **Breaking Hearts: The Two Sides of Unrequited Love **by Dr. Roy F Baumeister and Sara R. Wotman

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End file.
